When the sea was here...
There’s a stretch of old colonial bungalows along the stretch of Still Road. A number
of them are in a state of disrepair, although there appears to be some preservation/renovation efforts going on with some of them.
Before reclamation, the sea came all the way up to Marine Parade Road. Kristie’s
father, a long-time inhabitant of the East, who grew up in JooChiat reveals,
“the sea came all the way up to the drain at CHIJ, that side, where Tao Nan
(Primary School) was, it was all sea.”
A sea-fronting bungalow found just beside Roxy Square, called Seabreeze No. 37.
A bungalow along East Coast Road with an interesting fish-scale pattern.
TanjongKatong, or Turtle Point, as the beach was then called was a popular resort destination too.Situated away from the hustle and bustle of the city, and framed by
charming sea views, Katong, was the perfect place for a weekend getaway.
In her formative years Lillian Newton went on holiday with the Drysdale family to the island’s most accessible resort, TanjongKatong or Turtle Point, where she learned the delights of underwater swimming, diving and agar-agar, an edible seaweed jelly.
- Excerpt taken from Out In The Midday Sun: The British in Malaya, 1880-1960; Margaret Shannon
The area featured not just holiday homes, but also hotels.
The grounds of the former Grand Hotel were split to make way to build Still Road.
Now, but an empty shell, the glory of its former days long gone.
We find a modern-looking colonial building in the grounds of a condominium. Asking
the security guard, he tells us that it was the former Sea View Hotel. Having underwent renovation, it is currently the clubhouse of the condominium, The Sea
View.
Unfortunately, we were denied entry into the condo so had to make do with photos taken from the outside.
[Seabreeze No.37]
DATE: Friday, February 24, 2012
TIME: ||6:04 PM ||